Cómputo de pena en arresto domiciliario

Because micropolitan core counties account for only ten of Nebraska’s 84 non-metropolitan counties, one might tend to see them as more or less freestanding centers of urban activity, surrounded by an expansive sea of farms.

In reality, these centers anchor a diverse set of regional economies. In that role,

the businesses in Nebraska’s micropolitan core counties provide a significant income source for many of their neighbors.

Economic activity in the micropolitan core counties is of special importance to their outlying micropolitan neighbors. As a result of the commuting labor force that defines the outlying counties, they are able to capture wage and salary income dollars far in excess of what their own county economies generate.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (2004), micropolitan core counties export between 2% and 16% of the wage and salary dollars that they produce in the form of money paid to commuters (or remote location employees) residing in other counties. Micropolitan outlying counties, on the other hand, import wage and salary dollars from 9% to as much as 66% in

excess of what their own economies produce.

This transfer of wage and salary income through commuting is extremely important for both micropolitan and metropolitan outlying counties and indicates a two-way relationship in which commuters provide vital additions to the labor force of core counties in return for that additional income. These may not be the booming suburbs of Omaha, but micropolitan commuters make an undeniably important

contribution to the economic vitality of non-metropolitan Nebraska.

Another 26 counties are adjacent to the micropolitan core county (and not adjacent to a metropolitan core county), but do not achieve the 25% commuting rate required to be included in the CBSA. These counties also benefit from the capture of wage and salary dollars

Table 2. Percentage Change in Growth in Economic Indicators 2000 - 2004/2005

Wage & Total Average Total

Salary Wage & Salary Wage & Salary Personal

Jobs Income Income Income

Metro/Micro Area (2004) (2005) (2005) (2005) Nebraska 0.7 19.6 13.9 19.4 Metropolitan Total 0.6 18.5 13.1 18.9 Non-Metropolitan Total 0.8 22.0 15.8 20.3 Micropolitan Total 1.0 20.5 14.1 18.8 Beatrice Micro 1.5 22.3 14.7 22.3 Columbus Micro -4.5 13.2 14.0 14.3 Fremont Micro -1.5 12.5 16.9 13.6

Grand Island Micro -1.2 19.5 13.4 20.9

Hastings Micro -3.6 13.4 15.7 14.2

Kearney Micro 4.7 30.4 14.9 23.3

Lexington Micro -3.3 13.0 9.9 13.8

Norfolk Micro 6.6 25.7 11.6 23.1

North Platte Micro 5.7 25.1 16.9 20.6

Scottsbluff Micro 3.0 23.3 10.4 16.6

Outperformed metropolitan average

through commuting. Two of those counties (Box Butte and Phelps) were themselves exporters of wage and salary dollars. The remaining 24 captured wage and salary dollars 16% in excess of what their local economies produced (up from 13% in 1995). Eleven of those counties saw benefits of 20% or more.

The benefits of proximity to micropolitan core cities have not been sufficient to stem population decline. The 26 non- micropolitan adjacent counties saw their total population decline 31.1% between 1950 and 2004; only four of those counties (Colfax, Hamilton, Keith, and Phelps) actually grew during that period. These losses were only marginally better than the 36.5% population decline seen in the 35 Nebraska counties that were

adjacent to neither a micropolitan nor a metropolitan core county.

Conclusion

Nebraska’s economy has been dominated by Omaha and, to a lesser degree, Lincoln for decades. There is no doubt that the metro share of the economy is growing, driven in large part by suburban growth. Meanwhile the non-metropolitan areas are declining. The only real exception to this pattern is found in the ten micropolitan core counties. From a rural development perspective, that exception is encouraging but also tenuous.

If one thinks of the state as a market, the ten micropolitan core counties have more or less held their market share of

population, earnings, and total income over the last fifty years. At the same time the metropolitan core and suburbs have been gaining share essentially at the expense of the most rural portions of the state. As the total non-metropolitan pie shrinks, the portion of that pie belonging to the micropolitan core counties grows by default.

Today, Nebraska’s micropolitan core counties play a role in the non-

metropolitan economy that is analogous to that played by metropolitan core cities for the state as a whole. Individually, or even collectively, none demonstrate the near hegemony of Omaha. Still, their distribution across Nebraska makes them critical players in the social and

economic future of the state. These core counties provide the focus for many of the growth industries identified as economic pillars for rural Nebraska, including manufacturing, trucking,

professional services, information, and tourism (Thompson, et al., 2006). Statistical monitoring of micropolitan influence and change is worthy of similar attention to that given Nebraska’s metropolitan centers, but it is also important to recall that these micropolitan areas are in many ways unique regions. These micropolitan areas often follow very specialized

developmental paths. It may prove tempting to consider them as a class for programmatic or administrative

purposes. Policymakers would be well advised to heed the advice of the Office of Management and Budget that created them and avoid that temptation and instead tailor programs and investments to fit a specific regional context.

References

Bureau of Economic Analysis, State and Local

Bureau of Economic Analysis, Personal

Income for Metropolitan Areas, 2005.

Thompson, Eric, Ernie Goss, Chris Decker, Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel, Bruce A. Johnson, Mariana Saenz, Ben Schmitz, Juliana Neira, Pavel Jeutang, Pillars of

Growth in Nebraska’s Non-Metropolitan Economy. University of Nebraska Rural

Initiative, 2007.

Popper, Frank, and Deborah Popper, “The Great Plains: From Dust to Dust.”

Planning Magazine, December, 1987.

Swanson, Larry, “Can the Path be Altered? Salvaging and Renewing Communities of the Rural Plains.” Grassland Foundation Annual Lecture on Grassland Conserva- tion Sustainable Communities. April 12, 2007, Lincoln, Nebraska

U.S. Bureau of the Census, Annual Estimates of

the Population for Counties of Nebraska,

March 22, 2007.

U.S. Office of Management and Budget, “Standards for Defining Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas: Notice,”

Federal Register, Wednesday, February